HE is the masked crusader who hit the headlines for his fight against crime.

Self-styled superhero Scott Cooke, who calls himself The Statesman, told the world last week how he patrolled the streets at night to make a difference.

But while he keeps vigil in Birmingham city centre in the twilight hours, neighbours in Nuthurst Road, West Heath, reckon that he’s a superZERO.

For all his bravado, masked man Cooke has failed to stop NINETY-NINE crimes in his own neighbourhood in the last month alone.

The Government’s new online crime maps reveal that these have included ten burglaries, four violent crimes, three robberies and 51 instances of anti-social behaviour.

The 26-year-old bank clerk was unmasked last week. A 16st former TA soldier, he works at a branch of Santander bank in Bromsgrove by day and fights crime at night.

He boasted of his secret double life and claimed he had stopped a break-in and helped arrest a drug dealer.

Four nights a week, Cooke dresses in a Union Flag T-shirt with a black Zorro-style mask covering his eyes, and lurks in the shadows of the city’s streets ready to fight injustice.

His long-suffering partner Kerri Whip thought that he was out playing poker with his pals.

When the Sunday Mercury tracked him down to his semi-detached lair in Birmingham yesterday, the hero was nowhere to be seen. He could not be contacted for comment. But a neighbour, who did not want to be named, poured scorn on the bank clerk’s heroic alter-ego.

“If it’s the same Scott I’m talking about, then he’s scared of his own shadow,” the neighbour said.“He may be big but he’s out of shape. I doubt he’d be able to take on any of the kids round here, let alone some supervillain.

“But if he does want to clean up the streets of Birmingham I am behind him all the way. Maybe he can start by cleaning his garden as he has let it get a bit shabby recently. There are crisp packets everywhere.”

It was the same story when the Sunday Mercury approached West Midlands Police to ask if they had received any support from the city’s new superhero.

A spokeswoman claimed they had “never heard of him” and had “no record of him whatsoever”.

She also pointed out that West Midlands Police took a dim view of vigilantism and would not promote it “under any circumstances”.

Last week Scott explained how his night-time antics helped to distract him from his day job in Bromsgrove.

“I work for a large bank dealing with savings and investments,” he said. “All day I look at numbers and percentages, and work out how to make people richer.

“It’s not a popular occupation. I like to think I make up for this by going out at night, and trying to do something to help everybody.”

Last night his employers Santander gave Cooke’s late-night escapades a frosty reception, saying only: “It would be inappropriate to comment at this time.”